Issue 10 of Mother Tongue is an action-packed adventure into the pungent world of weed nuns; a swift yet thoughtful exploration of the political battleground that is American motherhood; an artful vie...

Originally published in Truthout, 8/15/22

An investigation into the everyday violence of prison strip searches, which incarcerated women say are a tool of abuse.

Practical advice from medical experts and from incarcerated women on how to deal with perimenopause and menopause.

The incarcerated population is getting older, but correctional facilities lag in menopause care. Kwaneta Harris is working to fill the gaps in women's prisons.

Originally published in In These Times, 11/12/2024

High temperatures violate the Constitution’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment, the judge ruled. Just over a third of Texas prisons are fully air conditioned.

Cameron Terhune, formerly incarcerated on death row within the Stanislaus County Jail, documented the adverse psychological effects and enduring social alienation stemming from his prolonged period in...

The shooting of Wilber Rafael Garces Perez came more than two months after an ICE officer fatally shot a man in Houston.

Everyone is talking about Lindsay Clancy.

The overwhelming majority of women in solitary have survived intimate partner violence. This means prisons are torturing abuse survivors.

Earlier this summer, we fielded questions from subscribers about life on the inside, giving Kwaneta a chance to connect with you all more directly.

Originally published in The Scholar & Feminist, Fall 2025

Practical advice from medical experts and from incarcerated women on how to deal with perimenopause and menopause.

Something kind of amazing happened at Solitary Watch last week. You may know about our pen pal program for people in solitary confinement—people who often live without any contact or connection to the...

Kwaneta Harris reveals surprising rituals where couples get hitched, and guests shed tears for the weddings on the outside that they’ve missed.

Your tax dollars pay for prison guards to get haircuts and flat-ironed for free.

Originally published in The Barbed Wire, 01/29/25

I expected the lifers to raise their hands first.

Originally published by SURFACE at Syracuse University, 2023

Free Joan Little, a powerful documentary exploring Joan Little’s fight for justice, resilience, and the lasting impact

I have watched a nineteen-year-old girl get grabbed by both shoulders and shaken like a rag doll for the crime of being autistic in a cage that was never built to hold her.

Originally published 8/22/2025

Incarceration isn't the only kind of captivity

After The Marshall Project found scores of fires set by men at a Joliet prison, legislators want improved fire safety and mental health treatment.

Charlotte and I were roommates before we were anything else, two brand-new inmates locked in a cell together, too afraid of the "criminals" outside our door to ever step past it.

Originally published in Teen Vogue, 12/15/2023

The authors of a new book on solitary answer your questions about their experiences with isolation and the movement to end the torturous practice.

I sat in a chair with no arms, and then they closed a cage around me.

Experiencing perimenopause and menopause in prison can be difficult. Here is some practical advice from medical experts and from incarcerated women who have done it.

When an ultrasound reveals a lethal fetal anomaly, each image is the unwinding of a miracle. Then, Texas’ abortion ban makes the nightmare even worse.

Incarcerated journalists detail the first signs of a heat wave in prison — and how they’ve coped with record-breaking temperatures.

A response to "A Quietly Radical Experiment in Criminal Justice" by Rachel Louise Snyder

Don't cry for her. She died with wind on her face, with the memory of sand between her toes, with the taste of fruit she chose herself, with doors she could walk through whenever her body told her to ...

Prisoners in federal facilities must file most grievances with the guards — a system they say exposes them to retaliation, including physical abuse.